January 2 I was going through a box of old papers and came across a somewhat ragged green high school folder kept by my first wife, Barbara. Leafing through the contents I came across an envelope whose cover and contents need no embellishment (click on the photo to enlarge it). I don’t know the history […]
It was on a Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, that my Uncle, Frank Peter Bernard, was killed on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor HI. Each December 7 I remember that day, and indeed, am reminded of that day, as the iconic film clip of the Arizona being hit by the bomb is shown. Dec. […]
Last night, New Years Eve, we had the final Christmas gathering of a few family members who’d missed the earlier get-together. When they left for home, the 2010 Christmas season was officially concluded, and New Years Eve was winding down to the New Year. I suppose it was about the stroke of midnight in Iceland, […]
This year the last day of the year coincides with the last day of the traditional American workweek. Rather than muse about this or that, I simply took a look back in history to see the previous December 31sts which occurred on a Friday. You can easily do this by looking at the perpetual calendar. […]
We attended Christmas morning Mass at Minneapolis’ Basilica of St. Mary, where the celebrant was Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Diocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. The Archbishop’s homily was on the theme of the importance of words: “what’s in a word”. I was particularly struck by a story he related at the end of his sermon. […]
Yesterday, on my daily walk, I came across a guy who, I thought, was acting strangely. He had a shovel, and was on the right side of the street, taking a clod of snow out of the abundant snowbank there. Then, oddly, he carried the clod across to the left side of the street, and […]
Wednesday, December 15, we attended Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis… Friday morning December 17 I was at the Post Office early, the better to beat the rush. Even given the good timing, there were still a dozen or more of us in line, with one postal worker on station […]
Today is the Winter Solstice, this one especially unique because of the total lunar eclipse which last happened on this solstice in 1638, three years after my first French-Canadian ancestors, Jean Cote and Anne Martin, married at Quebec City November 15, 1635. One can wonder if they watched that eclipse, and wondered what it meant…. […]
The Christmas cards above and below (they were like today’s picture postcards) were saved by my Grandmother and Grandfather Busch at their North Dakota farm in the early 1900s*. This year, my annual Christmas Reflection can be found here. It is easily the longest I have done (the 33rd in a series beginning 1977), with […]
UPDATE: This link was put together by Larry Gauper, a classmate and friend of Barbara during Valley City High School 1957-61: Barbara Sunde Bernard_12_13_2010-3. Peace and all best wishes for a wonderful Christmas Season and a Happy New Year in 2011. If you wish to participate in a meaningful remembrance this season, note my post […]